Kingdoms and Empires: Ancient Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt

Compare and contrast the kingdoms and empires in ancient Mesopotamia and the kingdoms and empires in ancient Egypt.

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Introduction

Between 3200-500 B.C the Middle East and Egypt had two successful societies called Mesopotamia and Egypt. Mesopotamia, now well identified as the cradle of civilization, and Egypt remain the most influential ancient societies. The major empires in Mesopotamia were Sumerian civilization, Akkadian empire, Babylonia empire, and Assyrian Empire. Empires in ancient Egypt included the Predynastic period (c.5000-3100 BC), Archaic period, Old kingdom-age of pyramid builders, middle kingdom, new kingdom, third intermediate period, and from the late period to Alexanders conquest (c. 664-332 B.C). There are major similarities between these two ancient societies; but there also quite a number of differences; these two ancient societies had different environments, wonderful yet diverse cultures, with both rising and falling at different periods. What remains common is that both Mesopotamia and Egypt had almost similar social structures, developed key technological advancements, and existed slightly closer. This paper compares and contrasts the two ancient societies within the IEMP model (ideology, economy, military, politics).

Ideology

Mesopotamia religious ideology was majorly polytheistic, with several main gods and thousands of minor gods being worshipped. The Epic of Gilgamesh, indicates the polytheistic worldview of Mesopotamia with three commonly worshipped gods being Ea (Sumerian: Enki), Anu (Sumerian: An) the god of wisdom and magic, and Enlil (Ellil), the god of earth, agriculture and storms (Hill, Jones, & Morales, 2013). Each city including Lagash